I have been using dronedeploy now for a couple of years and seen alot of useful additions to the initial product. However it seems that with all these improvements some of the basic functions have been broken or downgraded. I seem to get a higher percentage of failed flights these days- maybe about 30% don’t work or something goes wrong with the app- not that this is a deal breaker- usually a restart or 2 will get it working again. Anyway after a 2 day stint of flying a long-ish road corridor I thought I would put a few of my gripes down on paper so to speak:
random instances of drone taking off, after checking all the boxes, then gets to 9 or 10m altitude and just hovers… doesn’t continue, have to hit RTH to terminate mission
lost connection with controller- previously the drone would continue on it’s preprogrammed mission and link back in when connection was good again. Now it seem the drone just stops and hovers with a lost connection (P4P). Then need to hit RTH to bring it back.
Unsuccessful missions (eg. due to low battery) have drone returning home prematurely- but then when it lands DD tells me mission is successful and prompts me to upload- however the flight path has NOT been completed and no option to continue. This may not be a big deal unless doing long straight runs- inevitably the drone terminates somewhere in between waypoints- so if you just copy the mission and start from X waypoint- you either have a lot of duplication or miss a big chunk on one leg.
stupid red home button on bottom right corner- it only takes a slight touch/bump whilst moving iPad and that’s it… drone terminates mission and returns home!!! Need a Yes/No check on this- have terminated a few missions 3/4 way thru just from mishandling iPad- very frustrating!
backwards flight - know this has been discussed elsewhere but it seems to have been an issue with recent P4P flights (yeah it might be DJI firmware thing) happens every time I fly.
I fly a P4P with an iPad Air 2. I’ve done about 800 total maps with different drones and maybe 300 with the P4P.
Longish road corridors tend to push the envelope on this emerging technology. They can be a lot tougher than a rectangular field.
Hovers at 9 - 10 m. I’ve experienced that very rarely. Usually a recycle power on the drone and controller and I would suggest uninstalling and reinstalling the app and also turning the mobile device off and back on once every few days to clear out possible conflicts. It also can be due to interference.
Mine loses connection once in awhile but keeps going. Is this on long corridor trips at a great distance? If it’s far far away, that may affect it.
The successful early flight plan happens once in awhile also. You might try closing and reopening the app to get it to the Continue mode. I always bring it home before it gets to it’s battery limit so I have better control of optimizing the battery life with waypoints. I bring it home around 30% after it just passes a waypoint near me so it starts back there.
I’ve never done that with the RTH accidentally. Is your iPad mounted on the controller?
My P4P has never done a backwards flight. Interesting.
I’m not sure what longish is, but I do 2-3 mile roads all day. I have experienced the “backwards flight”, but it has actually been the camera reversing… When I tilt down it flips 180 and sometimes back. This started happening after iOS 11.2.5. If this happened to me every 3rd flight it would be a deal breaker.
Connection issue has happened at maybe >1500m distance from controller to drone, so not overly excessive. Not sure why it doesn’t just continue on with flight plan… it certainly used to.
The “backwards” flight thing is probably a DJI issue- yeah the drone isn’t actually flying backwards just the camera image is flipped- tried a manual flight within DGI go and it did it with that also, so probably not something DD will be able to fix. And yes- this happens pretty much every flight I have done recently. Not so much of an issue with autopilot but very disorienting when trying to fly manually. I’m still on iOS 10.3.3 so I don’t reckon it’s an apple thing.
Thanks for sharing your flight experiences with us. I’m sorry to hear you’ve been noticing inconsistencies with your missions and the drone connection. I’m curious to know what type of sites are you typically flying at? Are you calibrating your compass at every map site?
I’ve seen the hovering behavior and pre-mature RTH issue previously when there are environmental factors affecting the drone’s connection. This is usually exacerbated at certain sites near power lines or construction equipment, for example. Let us know if that was the case!
After searching around I do see reports of camera flip happening outside of DD so I think you’re right on that one.
Also, just curious as to how you are seeing the drone 1500m away? Or did you mean 1500ft? I’m guessing you’re not in the U.S.
In the right settings it is indeed possible to see drone at 1500m, but yeah I find it wise to send survey assistant to other extent of flight path with a radio. I’ve had a couple of failed flights where drone went missing for a fair few minutes and it’s always handy to have another set of eyes tracking it. And Yes, I am outside of the US- where we have sensible units of measurement
